Take our user survey and make your voice heard.
J-pop recording stars’ careers often burn bright and fast, as they pump out a high-content flow of new singles in the time until their fame runs dry. Hikaru Utada, though, has taken the opposite approach for most of her career. Despite being one of the most revered artists in the industry, Utada’s releases are few and far between, and when she does decide to grace listeners’ ears with a new song, it’s a major event, often with partners eager to help get her sound out there.
Utada’s latest song is titled “Dare ni mo Iwanai” (“I Won’t Tell Anybody”), and she’s giving fans a preview in a beautifully shot video that’s also an ad for beverage company Suntory’s Tennensui bottled water.
The video, Utada’s second for Suntory, follows her as she hikes through the Japan Alps, the range from where Suntory sources Tennensui, showcasing the beautiful natural scenery of the mountains of central Honshu.
Playing in the background is a section of “Dare ni mo Iwanai,” its lyrics meshing with the breathtaking but bittersweet feeling of being all alone in the great outdoors when Utada sings:
“It’s not fun, but I have to tell myself
That’s it’s better to be hurt forever than to live alone
More than learning from the past, I want to become closer to you tonight
I won’t tell anyone”
While most of the atmosphere is cool and misty, there’s a moment of warmth as Utada makes camp on a mountaintop and sits by the fire, reading aloud from a collection of poetry from Japanese poet Doppo Kunikida, which the singer herself personally selected for the video.
In addition to the 60-second video above, there’re also a half-length version and a behind-the-scenes making-of video.
Surprisingly, while the 30-second video also features “Dare ni mo Iwanai,” the section of the song is noticeably much more up-tempo than the one used in the 60-second version, suggesting there’s a lot of complexity in the song’s arrangement to look forward to when the single becomes available digitally on May 29.
Sources: YouTube/SUNTORY via Comic Natalie via Otakomu, Yahoo! Japan News/The TV Vision
Read more stories from SoraNews24.
-- J-pop megastar Utada Hikaru previews new song, hikes Japanese Alps in beautiful videos【Video】
-- J-pop megastar Utada Hikaru announces first concert tour in 12 years
-- New video for Hikaru Utada’s ‘Beautiful World’ is a slice of Evangelion awesomeness【Video】
© SoraNews24
10 Comments
Login to comment
inkochi
Beautiful and atmospheric is the point - we get that.
Not sure that getting out to walk around the beautiful countryside riding fluid emotions is the right message just now.
plasticmonkey
Sigh....
Pukey2
Is she still relevant? I lost all respect for her when she was complaining on social media about the number of foreigners who had property in Japan while she, at the same time, had property in New York. So is she American?
Sneezy
Utada.
STAY.
AT.
HOME.
Random
@Pukey, she was born in New York, and has an American passport. And she probably speaks better English than most New Yorkers.
Luddite
Stay at home.
Ethan
If you guys see her twitter, she's right now in the week 4 of self-isolation with her son. And it means she doesn't go out to make a video or whatever. So I think this video is filmed a few months ago. She stayed at home and obey the rules now:) Don't worry about that.
Sneezy
Then I retract what I said, thank you for correcting me, Ethan!
John Richardson
I remember I bought her first cd when it was released in japan. her earlier stuff was really good. but then again, a lot of the ealrier japanese pop songs between ayumi and others were not so bad. different era and future potential of hope chosen by God I guess. I agree.
Doug Maduro
I hope her ex-husband is ding well in this trying time.